36 Comments

You’re right, they need to sell. But I don’t think it’s a disguise at all. It was necessary to shake Amaro out of his delusion this team could contend.

Amaro, like most people in sports, likes to think his players are good enough to win everything (look no further than across the street at the Eagles’ camp for more proof).

Sure, some teams with similar records have stormed back to win. But those teams were underachievers who got it together. This team has overachieved to hover around. 500 all year. With poor defense, an anemic offense, inconsistent starting pitching and no bullpen it’s a credit to the team they’ve managed to keep it up this long. But it’s unsustainable. Time to retool for the future.

I wonder who else is not on the list, or who is only there in case another team makes a ridiculous overpayment.

I’m sure there are lots of players to be traded, but I also think the Phils have a ton of garbage that can’t be traded even to the Long Island Ducks. No team is going to make a deal for Nix, or Mini, or Valdez, or Howard, or Adams. Guys like D.Young might get a nibble, but no one would give up mare than organizational filler for that kind of player.

I firmly believe that the only guys who are worth anything to other teams are the very ones Amaro will balk on. He’ll be asking too much for the Utleys and Papelbons because he’ll believe they can still help in 2014.

time to rebuild ! love to see a lot of guys go. not so much with utley ,but bye bye chase. love ya but, need to get something for ya.
love to see rollins go, bye chooch( don’t like the fact that you don’t establish the fast ball with young bullpen guys), see ya papple bum. bye m. young.
i’d keep lee, unless someone offers you a great deal, including a young ace. pitching will always give a team a shot.
i like d. young’s approach at the plate. want galvis back up, should be here now. joyner has done wonders with d. brown. revere is a keeper after rough start. you can’t move howard. bye some cheap players who actually get on base, and don’t strike out so often ,like the a’s do.
i want fundamentally sound hitters, looking to get on base.
charlie has never been liked by me ! hello mr sandberg !

Have you actually watched Freddie Galvis play defense. He’s probably the best defensive infielder in the system. He gets to everything, has a cannon for an arm and can play multiple positions even though he’s a natural shortstop. He played great defense at second and third when called upon. Maybe you should actually watch the games instead of reading blogs and going by what’s on there~

I think it’s time to get rid of Charlie Manuel. Let Sandberg manage the team the rest of the season and see how they respond. If it goes well, we’re set for the next several years… otherwise, we can look at other options without wasting yet another season.

Bryan, sorry dude but this team doesn’t have a lot of talent. They have two great lefties (one of them having a down year), and a solid right fielder, and that’s about it. Chooch can’t hit without Adderall and the rest of the team is either bums or injured. Delmon Young is a joke, Mayberry will be a Camden Rivershark by next year, Ruf isn’t ready for prime time, and Michael Young could best be described as “adequate”. Utley is probably gonna get hurt any day now (that’s why I’d trade him ASAP while he still has value). The bullpen is absolutely a laughingstock, the Ryan Howard signing is one of the worst in sports history. The team has an ancient lineup and a weak farm system. They should be selling any and everything they can while they still have value and try to rebuild around Brown, Revere, and Hamels. The only players off the list should be Cole and Dom. Open season on the other 23 (though as we all know Howard isn’t going anywhere).

While Cliff Lee would bring back the most in a trade, I believe that Amaro wants to keep him – and with good reason. There is going to be nobody available in FA in 2014. This division is not a good one and with good starting pitching next year we could have a chance – provided Amaro can rebuild the offense and get players that are interested in getting on base and moving runners, etc. You know – “fundamentals”. My advice to Amaro on the offense – think of a player that approaches hitting like Ryan Howard, and then go out and gets guys that do the exact opposite.

There are those that believe this team can contend next season. On what planet! I would rather see the young kids with some youthful enthusiasm than all the laid back millionaires that are painful to watch. I grew up watching Mays, Musial, Aaron and so on. They played because they loved the game and not the dollar.

The guy we really need to trade is Papelbon. He’s very good…but only for now. He won’t be nearly as good next year…or the one following that. He’s started to decline so now would be a good time to sell high and free some salary space for the near to medium-term future.

I have been railing to get this done quickly, like for TWO months now. I’ve watched the declining velocity graphs, and this is a classic “almost fall off the cliff” type of decline. We needed to do this back then, when everyone was asking me – “Well who is going to be our closer then?”

And I kept asking, Who cares! Sometimes you’ve just got to cut bait and run. Now it’s a matter of – just get a middling youngster, maybe two, and dump the damn contract already.

There could also be a hidden injury, but we know the Phillies and their players would never tell us that until they have to.

After all is said and done, I don’t see a natural match between a Philles player on the block and a team with a) a need for said Phillies player and b) anything worthwhile in terms of return prospects or players.

I don’t think Manuel is the problem, certainly the huge contract to Howard in hindsight is easy to criticize. I agree we have some aging veterans who may not have a lot let, Utley I feel is still playing fairly well he certainly has fallen off a bit. In all fairness, he has been with us for 10 years, he has played through a lot of injuries and has shown a lot of guts especially with the hip issue in 2008. He had beat himself to the ground and it caught up with him. Howard just needs to get healthy, he had a pretty good year in 2011 (33 homers, 30 doubles) so I dont think he is too much of the problem. Yes he strikes out a lot but so did Jim Thome, I think thats what you get with sluggers unless your talking about Pujols when he was with the Cardinals. Get the pitching rotation back together and playing well as a staff, (I have a feeling Halladay will come back very strong next year), Lee has been excellent and Hamels will bounce back. As far as the bullpen, they are young and some of them should turn into pretty good players, Bastardo I dont see the beef with him that people have. His WHIP is very high though so that must be it As far as Rollins is concerned, he’s never been a great on base percentage guy hes not the prototypical lead off man. He certainly needs to be better though as a hitter. In his 12th year, his best days may be behind him however.

I will agree with those that said we need good fundamental hitters, even in the world series years we got by on the long ball and one or two clutch hits and the pitching did the rest. Also hitting with runners in scoring position has always been our downfall and needs to be addressed. Young needs to be better at the plate, I haven’t seen enough of him to judge his defense for myself but I read it is poor. Obviously, if I was a GM I would concern myself with a 3B that can defend before he can hit. I also agree that we need more organizaitonal depth, I became concerned with all the trades to get Lee back, and to get Halladay that we were depleting the farm system. I wouldnt be opposed to trading Utley or Rollins even though as I stated I think they still have something to offer but are certainly getting towards the backside of their careers. Young could go also. IMO, Amaro gets another year and if we can at least make the playoffs he stays for a 2nd year. Every GM screws up once in a while and in hindsight it is very easy to second guess Amaro. Lets see if he can correct his mistakes. To me as long as he doesn’t keep giving out crazy contracts and gets some prospects we’ll be fine. I think we had a pretty decent draft it seems so I hate to use the dreaded rebuilding word but thats where things are at, cant change the past and the rest of this year is shot have to wipe the slate clean and try again next year maybe even the year after that. Hopefully next year we will see some potential with a younger lineup that can bring some energy. I really miss a guy like Victorino as a spark plug but hopefully we can hit on a younger version of him and build around that and count on Howard to get back to 2011 form at least, and as I said the pitching staff needs to come back together again. Also, a more experienced bullpen will help.

I really don’t care as long as Ruin Tomorrow, JR is running the team. He’ll just get schooled like the amateur he is. FFS even Ed Wade picked his pocket on the Pence trade. Really, pretty much every move he’s made since (and including) trading away Cliff Lee has been a disaster, except Maybe the Oswalt trade.